Lawyer Network News

Saskatchewan Lawyer News

Saskatoon police officer submits a not guilty plea to obstruction of justice

Posted Nov 20, 2014 on globalnews.ca

Saskatoon defence lawyer Brad Mitchell has submitted a not guilty plea for his client, Const. Steven Nelson, who has been accused of trying to obstruct justice.

Nelson, a member of the Saskatoon Police for nine years, allegedly misplaced a statement made in a case of domestic violence.

It has been said however, that Nelson is not familiar with any person involved in that domestic case, wherein a charge has already been filed.

Mitchell said the charge that his client is facing is a serious one and will severely affect his employment.

With the not guilty plea, Nelson is expected to stand trial for two days in April.

Following the filing of the charge in October, Nelson is on suspension but with pay.

Judge finds military veteran not criminally liable for bomb threat

Posted Nov 19, 2014 on cjme.com

Timothy Steven Harris, a military veteran, was found to have no criminal responsibility in the email that he sent to social workers which stated "there is a bomb in the building."

Following the receipt of the email, the building which houses social services was emptied of employees while police searched for the bomb mentioned in Harris' email. However, they found nothing.

Harris testified that he had mistakenly worded his email. That he thought he wrote "the bomb is in the building," the word bomb in reference to himself and the word building referring to his growing issue with the social services.

The judge believed in the mental defence mounted by Jane Basinski, a defence lawyer in Saskatoon, because Harris is suffering from schizophrenia.

Harris admitted that he had not taken any medication at the time he penned the email.

The veteran sent the email because he got miffed with the social services' non-response to his earlier emails inquiring why he was not reminded of his annual review.

Basinski is asking for an absolute discharge for Harris while the Crown attorney wants conditions set to keep the public safe.

The review board will make a decision after a hearing to be held within a month and a half.

Appeals Court lowers sentence for sexual assault convict

Posted Sep 12, 2014 on www.leaderpost.com

Konrad D. Dyck successfully appealed his 10-year sentence for admitting to aggravated sexual assault after the Appeals Court decided to lower it to a little more than five years.

Dyck was originally sentenced to nine years for brutally and humiliatingly raping a woman, who was 20 years old at the time the incident happened in 2011. And, another year for evading arrest and crashing his vehicle in the process.

He was left with eight years and a half to serve after the judge credited him for time served in custody.

However, the Appeals judge found the nine-year sentence for aggravated assault unfitting and lowered it to six years.

Although the one year for fleeing police was retained, after the credited time served, Dyck only has five years and one month to serve.

Smith facing another charge for violating conditions of his release

Taj Smith, wide receiver of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is facing another charge for allegedly visiting a club in Gatineau, Quebec.

Smith is prohibited from visiting places where alcohol is being served as part of his release conditions for an earlier assault charge that he has been ordered to stand trial in June.

According to allegations, police had seen Smith together with another man inside the club while patrolling the area.

When Smith and his companion left, the police trailed them, then stopped them and arrested Smith.

The Saskatchewan Roughrider player was released on a $2,000 bail and is scheduled to return to court in October.

Smith's defence counsel, Aaron Fox, a criminal lawyer in Regina, stressed that nothing has been proven yet in his client's latest charge.

Woman with mental problems spared dangerous offender designation

Posted Jul 25, 2014 on globalnews.ca

Judge Sheila Whalen opted not to hand down a dangerous offender designation to Marlene Carter, a mentally-ill woman, during the sentencing of her assault convictions.

Instead, Whalen handed Carter a six-year sentence, which she only has two years remaining to serve because she was also credited for time spent in remand.

Saskatoon defence attorney Jim Scott, Carter's defence counsel, said his client was glad that the judge did not agree with the Crown, otherwise she would have been incarcerated for the rest of her life.

Except for one, all of Carter's victims were employees at where she had been incarcerated.

For the moment, she will be placed in a prison in Saskatoon while Scott and others work to get her transferred to a facility meant for offenders whose mental illness is severe.

Canada Lawyer News

Manufacturer knew Cold-FX wasn’t effective, says lawyer

John Green, a litigator in Vancouver, is alleging that Valeant Pharmaceuticals know that the Cold-FX was not much of a remedy for cold and flu but decided to withhold this vital information.

Green is spearheading a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer of Cold-FX which he filed in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, for falsely claiming that by taking it, one's immune system will be boosted therefore staving off an onset of cold or flu.

The lawyer has also alleged that research do not support the claims of the Cold-FX manufacturer.

The lawsuit, which was initially filed back in 2012, is now awaiting certification from the B.C. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit, however, has no claim amount. Green explained that this is because the lawsuit covers every box of Cold-FX sold under the false claim.

Should it be proven that indeed the Cold-FX does not relieve cold and flu and that its manufacturer lied about it, then Canadians could asked to be refunded for the boxes of Cold-FX they bought.

Woman jailed for fraud amounting to about half a million dollars

Posted Jan 27, 2016 on www.edmontonsun.com

Holly Jean Cardinal was meted with a three-year prison term following her guilty plea of having stolen $260,000 from a veterinary clinic wherein she was working as an administrator.

However, the Guardian Veterinary Centre was not the only employer that the 54-year-old Cardinal stole from because while she was working there, she was also undergoing trial for having embezzled $296,000 from her previous employer, the Allen Services and Contracting Ltd, where she had been working as a bookkeeper for a long time.

The judge found it aggravating that Cardinal continued to commit fraud with her new employer while she was undergoing trial for the same crime she committed from her previous employer.

In fact, she had pleaded guilty to those charges on the day she was asked by the vet clinic to leave under the suspicion that she was stealing from them.

The vet office, however, could not nail her for embezzlement for lack of evidence.

Cardinal confessed to stealing from the vet clinic while she was serving her sentence for her first fraud conviction.

Walter Raponi, a criminal lawyer in Edmonton, said that Cardinal resorted to stealing from her employers after she turned to gambling following a relationship that became abusive.

Lawyer of Mac store killing suspects urges for case to proceed

Rauf is representing Laylin Delorme, who along with Colton Steinhauer, is facing serious criminal charges including first-degree murder.

The two are suspects in the killing of two clerks of a Mac store last month.

Rauf said that he wants the case expedited because his client has been in custody since December and that he finds the month-long delay unreasonable.

Delorme has been scheduled to next appear in court on January 29 which may result to the scheduling of his preliminary hearing.

Steinhauer, for his part, has been instructed to communicate with legal aid after he told the judge that his lawyer had cancelled him out.

A boy aged 13 years old has also been charged along with Delorme and Steinhauer.

Defence lawyer to oppose forfeiture of client's bail

Posted Jan 08, 2016 on www.calgarysun.com

Calgary criminal defence lawyer Gavin Wolch is adamant that the Court has no right to hand over the bail money of his convicted client, Nicholas Rasberry, to the Crown.

Rasberry was convicted of manslaughter for stabbing to death Craig Kelloway in May of 2013. The two were drinking before the incident.

Rasberry was originally charged with murder but it was downgraded to manslaughter because the judge found that Rasberry was prompted into killing Kelloway, whom he said tried to sexually assault him.

However, before Rasberry could be sentenced, he had breached one of the conditions of his bail, that is consuming alcohol. He was caught during a Checkstop.

Hersh Wolch, a defence lawyer practicing in Winnipeg, said the forfeiture proceedings should not be allowed because Rasberry was not on bail anymore when the Crown filed the application as he had been sentenced already.

Gavin Wolch wants to get the matter done and over with because he says his client is seeking another bail as he will be appealing the verdict.

Man imprisoned for dangerous driving

Posted Jun 26, 2015 on www.edmontonsun.com

Brandon James Hudson was meted with a prison term of two years and seven months after admitting to dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Hudson also pleaded guilty to hit and run, stealing a vehicle, not stopping at the scene of an accident, breaches and assault.

Four people were injured as a result of Hudson's antics.

The Edmonton resident, however, does not remember any detail of what he had done to have been slapped with the several charges as he had been too high on drugs at the time of the incident.